Monthly Archives: April 2015

The decline in music and arts courses in our schools is shocking. Even the most stressed-out classroom teacher will admit music and arts teachers have it worse than the rest of us. All teachers face the constant pressure of mandates that force us to dumb down education and center on teaching-to-the-test. All of us work in an environment of cronyism where teachers who speak out on the real problems in education are the target of intimidation and bullying by administrators to be silent. Teachers across the nation cringe every time we see an administrator change a failing grade to passing, because we know how much that hurts the child.

But on top of all this, music, arts, and electives teachers have to face the constant threat of eliminating their courses entirely. The worst part is knowing that cancellation is almost always based…

NEW YORK — It turns out at least one part of publishing has a diverse slate of authors: The books most likely to be pulled from school and library shelves.

The American Library Association on Monday released its annual list of the 10 books receiving the most complaints from parents, educators and others in the local community. Sherman Alexie’s prize-winning, autobiographical novel of school life, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” ranked No. 1, followed by Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel “Persepolis” and the picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin, Peter Parnell’s and Justin Richardson’s “And Tango Makes Three.”